Recently finished up with Max Payne 2. For me, it was a more enjoyable experience than its prequel. It retains all the good things from the first outing: the cool bullet time and excellent noir writing. For me, no game has surpassed the series on these fronts. In addition it's slicker, looks much better, has a number of enhancements, and the difficulty level is much more sensible. You can actually survive an encounter now without spamming auto save. It's a great game, so if you tried Max Payne 1 and found it too frustrating or antiquated, but are still curious about the series, MP2 offers a good entry point.